Darling hints at road tolls to relieve congestion

Road tolls might be considered by the Government in an attempt to reduce congestion, Alistair Darling, the new Secretary of State for Transport, appeared to suggest last night.

Mr Darling insisted that he was not "anti-car" but indicated that was prepared to consider road charging, which had been ruled out in the medium-term by his predecessor, Stephen Byers. "We shouldn't be stopping people from doing what they want to, but there has to be some constraint, simply because we can't all drive down one road at the same time," he said in an interview with the Financial Times. "Everything has to be paid for one way or another."

On plans for charges to drive into central London, he said: "Whatever we do, we have to get general public acceptance. The priority is we have got to improve public transport."

He hinted that Heathrow airport could be further developed. "Having a hub airport is of enormous value to this country. My starting point is that."

Mr Darling said of Mr Byers: "I haven't the slightest doubt that he'll come back but he was absolutely right in his judgement that he had reached the stage where he didn't think he could do anything further for the Government and he had to get out."